Leftist Gasbags Leave Much to Comment On

Picking and choosing which of the political left’s gasbags to pop raises the same dilemma once expressed by Winston Churchill. A lady was said to have scolded Sir Winston (known for his prodigious capacity for drink) that his consumption of cognac would, if added up, fill a room from floor to ceiling. To which Churchill replied, sighing, “Ah, so much to do and so little time to do it.”

Burdened with multiple opportunities, we today render modest justice to several items in place of complete justice to one.

The ironies of protest: Those of us who lived through the ‘60s and ‘70s struggled to squelch a giggle as we watched Clinton’s proxies bravely sputtering over the din of protesters at Ohio State last month. There was Bubba’s own national security advisor, Sandy Berger, defending the potential for U.S. intervention in Iraq while students howled at him and his colleagues.

This was the same Sandy Berger who labored with Bill Clinton in the 1972 McGovern presidential campaign--a campaign whose central theme was (no joke) “Come Home America.” To see these two antiwar stalwarts propound today about America’s responsibility in a world of tyrants is, well, breathtaking.

As they contemplate flattening Baghdad with air strikes, one wonders if they’ll recall McGovern’s comment that “begging is better than bombing.” Come to think of it, some would argue that’s precisely the policy they’ve embraced.

Save us from the Nazis: As Kenneth Starr labors to pierce the Clinton stonewall, his efforts have triggered allegations that the Third Reich is rising again. Monica Lewinsky’s father told ABC’s “20/20” that questioning Lewinsky’s mother before a lawful grand jury investigating possible criminal conduct was reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, the Inquisition and “you could stretch it and say the Hitler era.”

When on suspicion of potential obstructions of justice White House aide Sidney Blumenthal was invited down to visit with grand jurors, his attorney recalled the Star Chamber and the Gestapo. Joining the chorus was Clinton political tough Harold Ickes, who also was heard to equate the independent counsel with the Star Chamber and the Gestapo.

Enough of this hokum. Comparing America’s justice system to Hitler’s genocide is a debasement of the language. This isn’t mere rhetorical excess or hyperbole we can excuse. It is a crass and indefensible diminution of one of history’s worst atrocities. Gassing, shooting and torturing 6 million innocent victims is not quite the equivalent of privileged highbrows showing up at the courthouse in limousines accompanied by a phalanx of lawyers.

The millionaire boys’ (and girls’) club: This November’s elections in California should be entertaining--time to beat up on those millionaire Republicans. Oops. Try again. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Al Checchi’s financial disclosure last week put his net worth at the $800-million mark (plus or minus $10 million). Checchi’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Jane Harman, is reported by The Times to be worth “hundreds of millions of dollars.” Combined, they own hundreds of different interests in stocks, real estate and trusts. A fair fight, one supposes.

Republican Dan Lungren has no investments and lives on his government salary along with less than $10,000 from his wife’s real estate commissions.

America is aswarm with rich liberals--from officeholders to activists. Democratic Sens. Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Jay Rockefeller, Frank Lautenberg and Barbara Boxer are all millionaires. So figure this one out: Average folks are taxed to pay for Senate staffers to churn out press releases by moneyed pols who claim their identity with the poor and dispossessed. Get it?

Speaking of Boxer: Must be an election year: Barbara Boxer is making nice with the business community. The latest is Boxer’s sudden embrace of issues near and dear to California’s high-tech industry--especially the removal of restrictions on the export of encryption technology.

But Boxer turned deaf ears to this industry in 1995 when she voted against critical securities litigation reform--to prevent frivolous class-action lawsuits which extort tens of millions of dollars from our best corporations. She also voted against the override of Clinton’s veto of such reform and stayed neutral while businesses fought to defeat Proposition 211 (which would have encouraged even more litigation) in 1996.

Boxer hurtling toward the middle is the election-year equivalent of the swallows returning to Capistrano. Except that Boxer is more predictable.